San Bernardino County will embark on a nearly $23 million program aimed at revitalizing neighborhoods sacked by the mortgage crisis by providing financial assitance to families whobuy foreclosed properties.

On Tuesday, the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors approved using $22.7 million in federal funds to establish programs through its Department of Community Development and Housing that will assist qualified families in the purchase of foreclosed properties.

Qualified homebuyers’ choices will narrow to areas of the county hit hardest by the collapse of the housing market.

Under federal guidelines, the county has 18 months to obligate the funds after receiving the grant, and four years to spend them.

One program would allow eligible families to receive down payment assistance of up to 3<MD+,%30,%55,%70>1/<MD-,%0,%55,%70>2 percent of the purchase price. Another service would provide low-interest loans to families to cover the cost of fixing up the properties.

The county will also, under the program, partner with the Inland Empire Economic Recovery Coporation to buy foreclosed properties, renovate them and then sell them to qualified families, said Mitch Slagerman, director of the county Department of Community Development and Housing.

The IEERC is a recently formed public-private partnership between San Bernardino and Riverside counties and private investors. Its goal is to stabilize the local economy by purchasing foreclosed properties, revitalizing them and selling them.

Forty-seven percent of San Bernardino County communities are eligible for the program, Slagerman said.

From Jan. 1, 2006, to present, banks have foreclosed on 39,119 homes across the county and issued mortgage default notices to 95,245 people, said Paul Herrera, spokesman for the San Bernardino County Economic Development Agency.

The county is seeing a monthly average of 5,000 notices of default sent out to homeowners. In February, 4,822 homeowners received such notices, Herrera said.

“That’s the most we’ve ever recorded in the history of the county,” Herrera said.

Among the areas hit hardest by the mortgage meltdown are the cities of San Bernardino and Fontana and the High Desert.

“The foreclosure crisis has disrupted many lives and neighborhoods and the vacant homes left in the aftermath must be occupied in order to prevent further damage to neighborhoods,” said Supervisor Brad Mitzelfelt, whose district includes the High Desert.

With the passage of the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008, $3.92 billion in emergency assistance was allocated to address abandoned and foreclosed homes. Of that amount, the county received the one-time grant of $22.7 million.

The county is preparing to launch in the next week an interactive Web site that will post maps showing areas of the county hit hardest by the mortgage crisis. It will serve as a navigtional tool to members of the public interested in purchasing foreclosed properties.

For more information on the program and the Web site, contact Paul Herrera at (909) 388-0800.

Joe Nelson is an award-winning investigative reporter who has worked for The Sun since November 1999. He started as a crime reporter and went on to cover a variety of beats including courts and the cities of Colton, Highland and Grand Terrace. He has covered San Bernardino County since 2009. Nelson is a graduate of California State University Fullerton. In 2014, he completed a fellowship at Loyola Law School's Journalist Law School program.

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